Portable electronic devices are becoming more and more prevalent. Cellular phones, portable radios, pagers, personal organizers, and the like have become mainstays in everyday life. These and other similar devices rely on batteries for their portability. The cost of replacing single use batteries, like alkaline, can be prohibitive. In an effort to save consumer's money, electronics manufacturers are designing products which incorporate rechargeable batteries instead of single use cells. As rechargeable batteries can be charged and discharged thousands of times before replacement is needed, the overall cost of operating a rechargeable device becomes much cheaper.
One reason for the growing popularity of portable electronic devices is that both the size and cost of such devices are both being reduced. In the world of cellular phones, for example, the V-series phone manufactured by Motorola is less than three inches long when folded, and weighs less than 2.8 ounces! As the portable electronic devices get smaller and lighter, so too must the battery. In the case of the V-series phone, the battery measures 1.4".times.1.96".times.0.28", and weighs less than one ounce.
Chargers for portable devices, including cellular phones, tend to be able to recharge the battery in one of two ways: The first method is to insert the phone, with the battery attached, into a pocket in the charger. The second method is to detach the battery and insert it into the charger without the phone. The second method is primarily for people who own more than one battery. They can use one in the phone and have a spare charging in the charger.
The batteries themselves, without the phone attached, must make good contact with the charging terminals in order to charge. For this reason, batteries must be placed in a horizontal position and some type of latch must "push" the battery against the contacts to ensure a good connection. If a charger for these lightweight batteries was designed such that the battery stood vertically on end, the gravitational force pulling the battery down would not be strong enough to ensure a proper connection with the charger contacts. In other words, some batteries are so small and light, they can not go in a charger vertically, because they may not make a good connection with the charging contacts. They must instead be "snapped" into a charger horizontally to ensure a good connection.
The problem with this approach, i.e. snapping the battery in horizontally, is that a charger engineer must design the charger to be at least as long as the battery. Long chargers are bulky and unwieldy to carry around. There is therefore a need for a novel means of supporting a battery in a charger which allows designers to make the charger smaller.